Tuesday February 5th, 2013 – Fox Lake, IL
Time to get to work on ‘Schlitz Happened!’ I’m thrilled for the chance to do it, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of preparation involved. I want this to be the launching of a brand that will be sellable for years – even if it’s only to a very limited market. That market will be very loyal.
The appeal of this show in my mind is that it’s an insider’s club. If you happened to grow up in or around the Milwaukee area before about 1990ish, you’ll find it entertaining. If you didn’t, you will probably stare at it like watching a foreign movie without subtitles. I’ll be talking gibberish.
What’s good for me is that there are hundreds of thousands of people who will get exactly what I’m doing, and they’ll be my audience. Lenny Bruce spoke of wanting 100,000 fans and he’d put a career together entertaining those 100,000 over and over again. That’s what I’m looking to do.
Assuming there are 100,000 fans in the greater Milwaukee area that will love this show and be willing to come out and see it, how long would it take for everyone to see it once? This particular run at the Northern Lights Theatre wouldn’t come close to serving them all, and that’s totally ok.
It’s not realistic to expect to get booked there every week, but if it’s a hit how about a 100 seat venue of some sort? That seems like a doable number, and even three shows a week would make me a nice living for quite a while. Even if I did it one or two weekends a month I could do well.
I’d prefer to stay in one location – especially since I enjoy working for Potawatomi so much. If we can work out a deal there, I’m fine with it. Nobody will know until after April, so it’s nothing to even concern myself with now. What I need to do is focus all effort on getting ready for April.
I met with Mark Filwett of Lake County Geeks to put finishing touches on a website. He came up with a dead on design for the main page which features a classic collage of Milwaukee photos that convey the exact message I’m looking to give with the show. It’s all of what Milwaukee has been about for decades from beer to bowling to baseball to bratwurst. He nailed what I wanted.
The site will be up soon at www.schlitzhappened.com. I also got www.schlitzhappens.com, as I know people will confuse the title, at least at first. Mark gets the concept, and having a website is crucial to get customers who don’t live in Milwaukee anymore but would still enjoy the show.
I’ll bet there are at least 100,000 but probably a lot more that don’t live in the area anymore but would love to see a show like this. I’m going to have some local themed merchandise as well, so a functional website will be one of my wisest investments. I am claiming this base of customers.
There are a ton of potential products I could come up with, and I intend to do exactly that. The first and most important one is the actual show though, but I’m confident I can pull that off with nary a glitch. I’ve been performing my whole life, and this is right in my wheelhouse. I know all the material because I’ve lived it. It’s all ingrained deep within my soul just like it’s inside all the souls of the people who will become the biggest fans. If I can get 100,000 of them, I’m golden.
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